- NET Web Desk
Northeastern urban areas have attained remarkable positions in the NITI Aayog’s inaugural SDG Urban Index & Dashboard (2021-22).
The National Institution for Transforming India-Aayog (NITI-Aayog), the premier policy think tank of the Government of India (GoI) on Tuesday released the index, which is a result of the NITI Aayog-GIZ and BMZ collaboration focusing on the driving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) localization along Indian cities, under the umbrella of Indo-German Development Cooperation.
Urban areas have been classified based on their composite score:
- Aspirant: 0–49
- Performer: 50–64
- Front-Runner: 65–99
- Achiever: 100
According to the SDG index, 16 goals have been taken into account to classify the urban areas – No Poverty; Zero Hunger; Good Health and Well-being; Quality Education; Gender Equality; Clean Water and Sanitation; Affordable and Clean Energy; Decent work and Economic Growth; Industry Innovation and Infrastructure; Reducing Inequality; Sustainable Cities and Communities; Responsible Consumption and Production; Climate Action; Life Below Water; Life on Land; and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
Shillong (Meghalaya) and Aizawl (Mizoram) have been marked as good performers in the ‘No Poverty’, and ‘Climate Action’ category.
Imphal (Manipur), Kohima (Nagaland), Shillong (Meghalaya) have been marked as good performers in the ‘Zero Hunters category.
Meanwhile, Kohima (Nagaland), and Agartala (Tripura) found it’s place in ‘Gender Equality’ category.
Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), and Aizawl (Mizoram) have been marked as good performers in ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’ category.
Shillong (Meghalaya) have found it’s place in Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. While, Gangtok (Sikkim) and Aizawl (Mizoram) have been marked as good performers in ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’ category.
Northeastern urban area ranks as per the index are mentioned below :
1. Aizawl, Mizoram – 69.07 Score (Rank 13)
2. Shillong, Meghalaya – 68.29 Score (Rank 17)
3. Gangtok, Sikkim – 65.00 Score (Rank 31)
4. Agartala, Tripura – 64.79 Score (Rank 32)
5. Imphal, Manipur – 59.93 Score (Rank 43)
6. Kohima, Nagaland – 58.07 (Rank 50)
7. Guwahati, Assam – 55.79 (Rank 53)
8. Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh – 55.29 (Rank 54)
Therefore, none of the northeastern regions found it’s place in the top 10 urban areas.
It’s pertinent to note that 3 northeastern regions have been marked in the list of ‘Bottom 10’ Urban areas – Kohima, Guwahati, and Itanagar.
Shimla has topped the SDG Index. While, Coimbatore and Chandigarh were ranked second and third respectively among the top 10 urban areas.
“For each SDG, the urban areas are ranked on a scale of 0-100. A score of 100 implies that the urban area has achieved the targets set for 2030; a score of 0 implies that it is the farthest from achieving the targets among the selected urban areas. Overall or composite urban area scores are then generated from the Goal-wise scores to measure aggregate performance of the urban area.” – according to a statement issued by the government think tank.
SDG Urban Index and Dashboard ranks 56 urban areas on 77 SDG indicators across 46 targets of the SDG framework.
Out of 56 urban areas ranked in the index, 44 are with population of above one million. 12 are State capitals with population of less than a million.
The data on these indicators have been sourced from official data sources such as National Family Health Survey (NFHS), National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE), data portals of various ministries, and other government data sources.
The dashboard can be assessed here : http://sdgindiaindex.niti.gov.in/urban
